I was browsing a site for Wordpress themes when I came to see this page: http://www.press75.com/v4/terms-conditions/ It says that all themes and plugins provided at the site are under the GPL General Public Licence. Does that mean if I download one of their themes from - let's say - a warez forum, can I still be sued? I mean, somebody must have purchased the theme in the first place anyway and he choose to share it in the illegal scene for everyone's use. Does the GPL licence grant the customer the right to share the product (without modifications and without taking credit)? Note: I know that downloading of warez forums is illegal and unethical at the very least. I was just using them as an example, so please save your ethical lessons for another thread.
If your saying its licensed under the gpl and they're charging they're the illegal ones.... gpl is open to the public you cannot charge for it
warez is illegal. the GPL General Public Licence means, when you buy or get the theme, the giver/seller is required to provide all materials for the theme including the source code/psd files that gives the giver/seller the freedom to change or alter the theme in anyway they want. They must have the same freedom as the maker. I am not sure about the distribution as it only applies for free theme. better ask press 75 author.
I was getting the same impression as psychost too. If they are licensing the theme under the GPL they can not charge money for it AND as supernoobice said, they are required to provide all the source code and materials for free for people to modify as they like. Also, when the new person (who gets the theme by either paying for it or getting it for free from another person who bought the product already), he also has the same freedom over the theme as the original author, meaning that he may use it and modify it as he likes, and also share it for free, but he CAN NOT sell it for money, because the product itself and any other modifications must also remain under the GPL license. At least that's my understanding of the GPL concept. Notes: Warez is of course illegal, but sharing GPL products with people is not. Also, contacting the press75 author about this issue is not the best idea, because obviously he does not clearly understand the requirements that come with licensing a product under GPL (not that I know them, obviously, since I'm asking here). Even if he does I am guessing he will intentionally claim that one is forced to pay for the theme to use it.
I was also interested in this so I looked into it a bit and according to the GNU website you are allowed to sell software under the GPL license. It also says that if you bought this software or got it for free you can then distribute it with or without a fee. (This is my understanding of the GPL, please correct me if I have misinterpreted this information.) Information from:http://www.gnu.org/
Then the case is closed. The original author was right with selling the template, but we are also not doing anything illegal if we obtain it from a warez site (only an example, again), because somebody who purchased it decided to share it according to this line from the GPL:
This is false. You can charge anything you want for it, so long as you follow the provisions of the licence. RedHat, for example, brings in millions of dollars selling Linux which is GPLed.
Red Hat is not selling the same thing. Most of these sites are scams designed to trick users into thinking they are buying something unique with proprietary rights. Small Potatoes is right about the need to follow the license and if there aren't restrictions you can sell them.